Last night the Team Associated SC10 4×4 was awarded with two huge awards. The readers of RC Car Action voted it as 2011 Readers’ Choice Innovation and the editors of RC Car Action picked it as the Innovation of the Year.

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About Matt:I think it’s safe to say I’ve done a little bit of everything in RC. That said, I predominately race off-road and my current passion is short course. One of my all-time favorite classes is oval carpet racing. Besides racing, I can often be found working on one of my many never-complete projects, and it seems I have an ever growing collection of rock crawlers—specifically scale crawlers.
Matt’s 5 Hot Topics: Short course, Racing, Scale Builds, Crawling and the General RC Hobby

23 Responses to “RCX 2011–Associated shows off SC10 4×4”

We did a full feature article on this truck in our April issue. This article included performance because we got to drive it. That also happens the issue after the one which contained the printed Readers’ Choice Awards ballots and this issue hit newstands when voting was live online. To me, it’s not too hard to see how it could have won a Readers’ Choice Award for Innovation. We selected as editors for the editors’ pick for Innovation of the Year because we were able to actually test it.

We still have a long way to go in 2011, so be “innovation of the year” 3 months into the year seems premature. I’m glad the editors had a great time driving it, and I’m interested to see them start popping up at our track, but from what I’ve read there hasn’t been but maybe a handful of drives with this new platform, which makes me skeptical on it’s overall endurance and ability to hold up in the hands of the average racer.

I’m with atarit2 – this is hard to understand. There is absolutely no way an untried vehicle should be even in the running for the awards let alone be the winner! I don’t care if you did one test on it. This should have been in the running for next year’s awards. It’s very suspicious.

Most every other awards have a deadline. If the item wasn’t released before a certain date it is ineligible for that year’s awards.

The Readers voted the SC10 4×4 for Innovation also. We happen to agree. The truck deserves to be recognized for its innovation. We have tested and featured this vehicle in the magazine, so it qualifies to be considered for the award. A vehicle or product doesn’t need to be available for months to be able to appreciate its innovation.

I realize it is still very early and untested, but it won in the innovation category. That doesn’t mean its based off performance, it was just something totally different that took insight into how it was designed. To me the category isn’t on how it performs on the track, its the fact its something totally new and different.

But to say it’s the most innovative truck of this year is too early I think. There are a lot of new things on this truck, but time will tell if they hold up, or if updated parts come out after release. I’m hoping for those shocks to show up in team coatings!
Is this a new category? It makes me wonder what else it was up against at the time.
I remember my SC10 had some neat stuff on it when it came out. I drooled over the pics for a while, then got the kit about the end of April in 09′. Unfortunately the truck did not work out for me, and we parted ways. Looking back the best thing I liked about that truck was it’s battery brace, best battery brace any company has ever made in my opinion. unfortunately there was no “innovative battery brace of the year” category .

The premature part has merit, however in my opinion in 20 years has Associated EVER put a product out that was not track worthy? Brand reputation alone makes it a winner. Maybe just to loyal.
Unrelated all “competition worthy” r/c truck and cars NEED to be avail in kit form.

We’ve had a lot of “pit races” about this truck along with other SC’s between heats at our track, and we’re really split on the issue. A lot of people are liking what they see, but I still see a few issues.
One thing we know though is at our track will stop racing around the beginning of June when we hit triple digits, so the SC10 4X4 will not be competitive by that time since spare parts take a while to come out, and anyone who’s pushing any SC truck hard will break something.
Slash 4X4, Ofna/Jammin are really good at our track, but only maybe one Losi has shown up so far. I believe this year will still be ruled by the Traxxas Slash because of shier power in numbers and parts available. Plus, since we’ve had more time on the slash’s, we know what parts to have on hand, and what parts needed upgrading, what setups work well, etc.
nonetheless I’m still very curious about the new truck. AE puts more money behind competitive racing than other company, but I don’t think that makes it a better car.

Also what issues Ive had with the SC10 seems to be cured on this new truck; all but the suspension travel.
Since the 4th gen the AE cars all seem to have very little down travel, and when attempting to get more down travel axles would come out of thier outdrives. This new truck seems to have the same issue, arms in the photos never go far below level.
I understand competitive tracks are super smooth with little off-set jumps or holes that develop in the track. I would prefer additional suspension travel instead of just controlled up-travel like a rally car.

I’m no fanboy of any companies but come on just by looking at the SC10 4X4 it’ll win the most innovative award of the last 5 years if not this year. Since when a RC car design dares to take the belt/dual slipper/front one way/2 gears diffs route?

AE has many fans around the world, and I can easily see why the truck received the awards. I am a bit sceptical about the truck after I was disappointed by the SC10, as it did not work put for me either – I even managed to do better with a crappy Losi Strike.
Back to topic: Many voters give there vote to items they have never seen first hand, and so I don’t see a reason why a as yet unreleased product should be exempt from the readers’ choice awards, and in the innovations category in particular. To be honest, I don’t know yet whether I like the 4×4 (the DESC410R is more to my liking), but it is a innovative piece of kit for sure!

This Category is about Innovation. NOT how long it’s been out to be proven, or driven. It’s about how “cool the new stuff is.”

Time and durability etc, have nothing to do with this. The Magazine drove this Truck, sent it through it’s paces, tested the “innovation” and it’s up for vote. Yes, The amount of ads did help this truck see the top. But what else is so innovative for the gray line that all Short course is following now? There isn’t any creativity. It’s whatever truck comes out of the box the “best” or has the standard Weight, tune-ability, and hopups. This truck is original and works. = Innovation

Congrats Sc10 4×4, I can’t wait to get ahold of you, drive you, and vote for you next year for best Truck.

I’m sorry but I still think last years Slash 4X4 is still pretty innovative. A non-center diff car when it first came out with an option for a center diff, proven diffs with some massively thick shock towers, integrated AMB mount, with medium ground clearance and a shaft that runs THROUGH the chassis, waterproof-brushless ESC, motor, and servo, with the ability to run 14.8 volt systems, 3 cell out of the box and it DOES hit 60, and can run the larger 550 motors with any clearance issues.
SO if we count 2012′s votes for the SC10 4X4 we have one confirmed vote so far. The juries still out on this one for me